Shayne Gauthier won’t make this about him. That’s simply not his style to grab the spotlight and make his role in replacing Adam Bighill tonight all about the man wearing #44.
The veteran middle linebacker is now into his eighth Canadian Football League season since the Winnipeg Blue Bombers selected him in the fourth round of the 2016 draft. And over those years — plus his 70-plus games in blue and gold — the club has come to rely on his work ethic, his reliability, his consistency
And his humility.
That’s just part of what is a lot to like about the many layers that make up Gauthier’s tale.
“He’s always been very smart, very tough, extremely strong, nose for the football — he’s proven that year after year after year,” said head coach Mike O’Shea of Gauthier after Thursday’s walk-through practice in advance of tonight’s tilt against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
“So, this is not difficult for him. He just steps in and he’ll be good. Quite frankly — and I said this to Shayne — he probably should have had a bigger role a lot earlier. He was a good player when he got here and after the first couple of years he probably should have been stepping in and having a bit more of a role in various packages. We weren’t built like that, and we didn’t really do much of that as we do now.”
Bighill was officially moved to the six-game injured list on Thursday after suffering an injury in last week’s win over the B.C. Lions. He joins Kyrie Wilson in sick bay but one of the storylines that has emerged this season as the Blue Bombers work to recover from an 0-4 start is their depth and resiliency.
They’ve found something in American linebacker Tony Jones, and they knew what they already had in Gauthier.
So, how do you replace Bighill in the short term? Quite frankly, you don’t.
“He’s one of the best linebackers I’ve ever seen,” said O’Shea of the future hall of famer. “But no one’s job is to go in and replace him; the job is to go in and play like they can play. We’ll be good.”
Now 32, Gauthier’s story is truly one of perseverance and of his love of the game. His hometown is Dobleau-Mistassini, on Lac Saint-Jean in northern Quebec, about 340 kilometres north of Quebec City. He spoke only French growing up, played college ball at Université Laval, a predominantly Francophone institution and when he arrived in Winnipeg, he said his English was ‘really bad.’
Still, he had this solid foundation fostered in him as a youth by his parents — his father Patrice and his mother Marie-Anne. Patrice and his brother both have their black belts in judo, his sister Melanie has a brown belt, and Gauthier — after stepping away from judo and hockey — fell in love with football at the age of 14. So dedicated was he then that he changed schools so he could play in the fall, moving five hours from his home to Saint-Georges-de-Beauce while billeting with a teammate’s family.
That same dedication, it must be said, has been evident every day during his time in Winnipeg.
“The work ethic that has been passed on to me is don’t give up, keep working and good things will happen,” he said. “I’m comfortable here. Whatever you need me to do, I’m going to do it. That’s my job. I came into the league and I knew I was going to be a special teams player and that I’d have to work very hard for a chance to maybe start one day. I just put my head down and kept working every single week. That led me to where I am today.
“I don’t think about starting. I’m just here to do whatever they ask and to do it at the highest possible level. You don’t replace Biggie. He’s the leader of the defence. But I’ve also done this in the past so I’m ready to go. That helps and last week when I was in there the whole defence helped me out so much with the communication. It will be the same way this week. I’m ready to be in there.
“I have excitement, not nerves, especially since I’ve done this before, and I can’t wait to be out there with the guys.”
The Blue Bombers defence has been stifling of late, even without Wilson, with injuries along the defensive line and now with Bighill on the six-game injured list. Yet this crew keeps answering the bell and will need to be sharp against a Ticats offence that ranks third in offensive points and touchdowns despite their 2-8 record.
“Strength in numbers,” said Jones, who has been impressive this year wherever he’s lined up in the front six. “This organization has been so successful for so long and we take pride in being ready because anything can happen at any time, and you want to learn as much as possible. Injuries happen in football, and we hold each other accountable every day so that if anything does happen, all of us are ready to go.
“Hamilton is our next opponent. They do have a lot of skilled guys that can make plays on the offensive side of the ball.”
‘CLEAR AND OBVIOUS’: The CFL issued a press release on Thursday centred around the league’s Command Centre and vowing to ‘recalibrate’ operations in teh second half of the season. That full release is here:
Command centre operations refocus on clear and obvious principle